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‘Take NHS out of government hands’

New Labour has been given a forceful wake-up call by a national poll that shows the British people no longer trust its ability to run the NHS.

Ninety seven percent of people questioned regarded free medical treatment at the time of need as a basic human right — a higher vote than for freedom of speech, fair trial by jury or freedom of assembly. And the NHS was voted to be the UK’s ‘most valuable institution’.

But only a quarter of people polled (26 per cent) put their trust in government ministers’ ability to run the NHS. Nearly three-quarters (67 per cent) supported the NHS having a separate constitution of its own ‘to define the government’s duty to deliver free medical care at the time people require it’.

Other findings show that 43 per cent of people think the NHS needs to improve ‘quite a lot’, 19 per cent think it ‘needs a great deal of improvement’, and only 4 per cent think the service is good and could not be improved.

The poll was undertaken by ICM to inform an independent commission of experts set up by the Association of Community Health Councils in England and Wales and chaired by chief executive of the Industrial Society, Will Hutton.

Among 17 recommendations made, the commission stressed that:

• the NHS should be given a constitution protecting its founding principles;
• it should become a public corporation at arms length from the government with its own board and operational freedom;
• it should be made democratic and accountable at local and regional levels;
• the network of CHCs should be strengthened by extra public funding and an enhanced role as patient watchdogs.

Democratisation should take place ‘through transforming health authorities into elected bodies with a measure of appointment for the sake of expertise and balance, and eventually at regional level through assemblies in England as well as the Scottish Parliament and assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland’.

The commission points out that the UK has ‘slipped to almost the bottom of the OECD countries with respect to public funding and levels of health service provision’.

It adds that ‘the financing of new replacement hospital construction through the Private Finance Initiative has tended to reduce bed numbers and clinical staff budgets by up to 30 per cent and 25 per cent respectively in areas to be served by newly constructed PFI hospitals’.

Care and clinical priorities are now ‘explicitly traded off against economic goals, including returns to private shareholders’, it adds.

The government is seeking to address demands for accountability, more information and higher standards by establishing the National Institute for Clinical Excellence and the Commission for Health Improvement, the commission adds. ‘But these initiatives cannot close the accountability deficit.’

Hutton said that drawing up a constitution for the NHS will ‘help rebuild trust between the public, patients, doctors and NHS staff on a new basis of openness and trust.

Page 5: All those in favour of Hutton?

The commission’s report, New life for the NHS, is available from Vintage, price £4.99.